In a society with extreme disparity between the rich and the poor, the poor are usually unhappy. But in a country where everybody is so poor that they only have music, singing, dancing, and simple culture, the poor people are very happy indeed. This is Cuba that I want to say, in which the famous novelist, E. M. Hemingway, used to settle down and wrote his world recognised masterpiece The Old Man and the Sea. 

One month ago, I went to travel in Varadero, a famous tourist city in Cuba. I had some thoughts during my travel to compare tourism between Cuba and Macao which is positioned as a world leisure travel centre. Cuba has been subjected to American economic sanctions and trade embargoes for almost half a century, resulting in economic poverty, backward urban construction and underdeveloped communication technology. Because there is no car import, old cars of the 50s in the last century occupy the streets of Cuba, which has become a city landscape. The traffic network in Cuba greatly lags behind. There are no advanced tourism or entertainment facilities, no luxurious modern shopping malls, but the backwardness has not prevented its tourist industry from developing while Macao is a lot more modern than Cuba. 

Every man and woman in Cuba seems to be able to dance and sing whenever and wherever possible. The fat female peddler will suddenly dance to you, the toilet woman keeper will unexpectedly sing to herself. The Cubans have a very relaxing lifestyle, always waving their hands to cars passing by. On the first day of my arrival, I rushed to the bus station as usual as if I was in Macao, waving my hands hastily to the bus in a fear that I might miss it. However, to my surprise, the bus stopped patiently to wait for passengers walking from all directions. With a five-dollar tourist ticket, you can get on any bus with unlimited rides all day. Sitting on the upper deck of the bus, you can enjoy the blue sky and white clouds, and the drive along the coastline in the wind, getting all the leisure that what travelling is meant to be. 

Returning from Cuba, most tourists will have fully indulged themselves with alcohol, such as beer, rum, red wine, white wine, whiskey, Mojito (a kind of cold drinks mixed with different wine, which is said to be Hemingway’s favourite)... The sun in Cuba dries out the body of tourists, so tourists pour a lot of alcohol into their blood to replenish water. Cuban hotels and travel agencies provide all inclusive services to visitors, from the beginning of airport pick-ups to hotel accommodations until the holiday ends, and then deliveries back to the airport. All the services, including accommodations and caterings, are covered in the lump sum payment of the travel expenses, tourists do not have to pay any extra. Guests are free to enjoy all kinds of food and drinks (including alcohol) in the hotel at any time all day with different restaurants of foreign cuisine to choose. Cuba is rich in lobsters and fish, also in mangoes, papayas, guavas, pineapples and bananas. Hotels are equipped with gift shops, a variety of entertainment facilities, swimming pools of all sizes, and exclusive beaches. Hotels here arrange different programmes at different times, such as yoga, beach games, open-air music shows, dancing in the swimming pool, water carnivals and so on. There are diverse theatres or outdoor performances in the evening. And these are all free. Guests can just spend the whole holiday in the hotel, just like the idea of cruise recreation. This is really a leisure tourist city, and then I thought of Macao. 

A taxi, a waiter, a tourist guide, a passing pedestrian, they are the guardians of a city's reputation, but they can also be big destroyers. The Cubans I met during my trip were very realistic and only answered questions about their jobs or business. But once they knew you would be their customers, they immediately became very enthusiastic. And then Macao came to my mind again. 

The sun in Cuba is very strong (I was badly burned on the first day), but it has no harm to its attraction to international tourists. Among many tourist elements, the most important one is attitude, the attitude of a city to its own life and its tourists. And then Macao came to my mind again. Since the opening of tourism in Cuba in 1990s, the industry has developed rapidly and become the most important source of revenue for Cuba. Can Macao draw on the experience of the tourist development in Cuba?